Does Montero drop to the ground like he just took a .50 cal round to the head? Obviously yes.

Does Onstand then do the "I'm checking to see if my face is bleeding" act like he's Chuck Wepner or something? Sure looks like it.

Does any of this mean Onstad is a rat and Montero is a weasel? No, not really.

This concludes another edition of: "Oh Quit Bitching, it's a Soccer Game, Not a Quilting Bee."

As for this unfortunate situation:

I agree that in retrospect Salazar probably shouldn't have blown the whistle, but it's hard to call advantage way out at the halfway line.

In any case, he DID blow the whistle and unfortunately that means that no matter how many times you proceed to put the ball into the net, it's not going to count until he blows his whistle again.

Bottom line: let he who is without sin cast the first water bottle:

Maybe it's just me. but I'm mortally tired of hearing pronounciators telling me that this or that was "a professional foul" as if that made it better somehow than, I guess, "an amateur foul".

In this case what happens is that Evans is afraid Mullan might actually have a chance to score, God forbid THAT should happen, and so he cheats.

As for that imbecilic "Evans knew what he was doing there" comment, well Gosh, Mr. Soccer, thanks for sharing that expert-type insider info; we thought he was just running around the field looking for some random guy to knock down.

The topper though was delivered after the match by John Harkes, who unfortunately seems to have devolved from a promising color guy into a typical ex-player who thinks his job is to put every freakin call under a microscope for us. Look John, if I want to hear the officiating discussed I'll call up Esse Baharmast. Frankly, most retired players seem to have an appallingly limited knowledge of the rules anyway.

Harksie informed us that Seattle was really happy to get the draw because then they can go to Houston "and all the pressure will be on the Dynamo", a theory which I would have paid good money to see him try and float past Sigi Schmid last night.

Following up on yesterdays' USL/TOA post, Carolina Railhawks President Brian Wellman SAID LATE YESTERDAY that he and the other TOA guys were proceeding with filing the application to establish a new league "as early as (today)"

Furthermore, he suggested that the breakaway group has some prospects they're pursuing for some new teams. Frankly, a lot of people have always felt that the old "Pay Frank Marcos a big pile of money and then shut up" model was not appealing to anyone besides soccer=smitten rich guys who just wanted to run a team.

Real businessmen need not apply.

But with a true "league" structure, it's possible that they could indeed find a few more interested parties, which, in turn, makes this whole thing more appealing to USSF and MLS.

The real news though was that, according to Wellman, they would seriously consider going to a "European schedule" playing winter and spring split seasons.

I don't know whether they really mean it, but it's plenty smart to say so, I would think. USSF and FIFA would probably like to see it tried, if nothing else than to convince Sepp Blatter that they're working on it and, by the way, we're bidding on the World Cup doncha know.